It was only six months ago that the Adidas Group apparently anointed Patrik Nilsson a savior.

The Germany-based athletic footwear and apparel company tapped Nilsson to expand his role as president of Adidas America and take on the leadership of subsidiary Reebok.

That Nilsson is based at Adidas America headquarters in Portland and Reebok is headquartered in Canton, Mass., clearly did not matter to Adidas management in the Bavarian community of Herzogenaurach. They wanted Nilsson to lead the effort to re-energize a subsidiary that has underperformed for much of the since Adidas AG purchased Reebok in May 2005 for $3.8 billion.

The move also was a boost for Portland. In addition to remaining the headquarters for Adidas America, attending to design, sales, marketing and management for Adidas brand products, the offices on North Greeley Avenue also includes employees for Adidas Group North America.

Yet on Thursday, Adidas changed course, announcing that Mark King, currently the TaylorMade-adidas Golf chief executive, would take over as president of Adidas Group North America starting June 1. Nilsson, who will be in Portland through May, is leaving to become chief executive of an apparel company in his native Sweden, the company said.

The move comes at a crucial time for Adidas, as it continues to ramp up marketing and sales efforts leading to this summer’s World Cup, of which Adidas is an official sponsor.

Those preparations occur with a backdrop of disappointing financial performance for Adidas. In March, the company forecast 2014 profit as much as 17 percent below analysts’ estimates, warning of further curtailment depending on the continuing unrest in Ukraine.

Significant management changes took place earlier this year.

In January, the company announced that Eric Liedtke, who worked 12 years at Adidas America in Portland, would be promoted to the executive board of Adidas AG, effective March 6. Liedtke, 47, formerly senior vice president of Adidas sport performance, now leads global brands for Adidas.

And on March 4, the company said its supervisory board had extended chief executive Herbert Hainer’s contract through March 2017. A news release announcing the extension and praising the outgoing Hainer’s performance, spoke of “a smooth transition…to optimally facilitate the process of succession for the company.”

Nilsson “decided to leave the company for personal reasons,” Adidas said in a news release on Thursday. Neither he nor King would be made available for media interview, the company said.

Nilsson, 50, leaves having served longer as Adidas America than any one in that role since Adidas AG moved its North American headquarters to Portland in 1993. Nilsson, who started in 2007, was the seventh in a line of succession that began with former Nike executive Rob Strasser.

Nilsson started his Adidas career in 1991 as head of sales and marketing in Sweden. As a young man, he began his career as an athletic shoe salesman, a hockey player who believed at the time he was too small and slow to follow some of his amateur club teammates on a path Into the National Hockey League.In 1994, he joined adidas' Global Marketing organization. From 1994 to 2004, he served in management positions at the company’s Herzogenaurach headquarters, then spent three years in Stockholm managing a regional headquarters for Adidas before arriving in Portland in 2007.

“During his tenure,” Adidas said in a news release Thursday, “he led adidas America into a new period of growth and profitability.”